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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 




CONFIDENTIAL. 



A 



UNIVERSAL WORLD'S EXHIBIT, 




BY 



GEORGE MONTAGUE WHEELER 

Major Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, 

{Retired') &>c., &>c. 




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WASHINGTON, D. C: 

JUDD & DETWEILER, PRINTERS. 

1890. 







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Copyright, 1890, by George M. Wheeler. 
(All rights reserved.) 

Patent applied for. 



A UNIVERSAL WORLD'S EXHIBIT. 



The want of uniformity, order of sequence, and scientific 
system in the grand disposition, as well as arrangement, of 
the things tvpical and illustrative of the progress and results 
in the domain of thought, industry, and Government has 
been noticed whenever large expositions of the world's knowl- 
edge and products have come under observation. 

Prompted by experience, the conception of a plan compre- 
hending and disposing of all things likely to be displayed 
in a temporary or permanent World's Exhibit has been 
developed in skeleton form, and. may be found in a chart 
herewith. 

It rests primarily on the results attained from the World 
of Thought, associated with and surrounded by the World of 
Industry, and again by the Governments. 

In the center of the Exposition space is placed the initial 
motive power necessary for all the exhibits, and rising there- 
from is to be constructed an octagonal tower, in size and 
height proportioned to the magnitude of the undertaking, 
and overlooking the whole field. 

Around this tower is to be grouped the most important 
current and historic results in Electricity, a power now al- 
ready so wide, and which promises to become universal, in 
its application. The structure enclosing these will be of 
modern style. 

The foregoing occupies the first or inner circle of the whole 
space. 

The next concentric band is devoted to those fields in 
which the mind delights to wander, and from whence, 
through the emotional and imaginative faculties, have grown 
our conceptions and beliefs under the heads of Mythology, 
Theosophy, Theology, Metaphysics, Moral Philosophy, and 
Psychology. 

Before the day of Mythology even, and when the human 
race was shrouded in superstition, the germs were sown of 
w 7 hat has since been evolved into the Medical Science of the 
present time. 



For convenience, History, which belongs to all, has been 
located in this circle. 

The next encircling layer represents the space dedicated 
to Law, Literature, Art, &c. — i. e., the fine arts, the mental 
culture of life, and the law. 

Extending outward and somewhat as the mind of the 
human race has developed there comes the domain of Sci- 
ence and its branches, such as Natural and Experimental 
Philosophy, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Mathematics, 
Geography, Geology, Mineralogy, Natural History, Engi- 
neering, Architecture, Economics, Statistics, and Sociology. 

The next concentric space is devoted to the Inventions 
that belong particularly to the Industries of Agriculture, 
Mining, Manufactures, and Commerce and in immediate 
juxtaposition to those classes of exhibits respectively. 

The foregoing, as a whole, comprehend the domain of the 
World of Thought. 

The buildings to be placed within the spaces of the first 
concentric band are to be representative of Saracenic, Egypt- 
ian, Jewish, Indian, Persian, and Chinese Architecture, uni- 
form as to height, usefully subdivided, and to increase in 
size radially outward until those employed for inventions 
shall be subordinate only to the grand structure devoted to 
the Industries and perhaps to certain buildings used by the 
Governments. 

The constructions in the circular band dedicated to Law, 
&c, will represent each an individual of the Greek as well 
as the Roman Doric and Corinthian schools and the Roman 
Ionic and Composite. 

The circular banded space dedicated to Science may have 
all the buildings of the Gothic order of architecture. 

The Inventions are to be enclosed under well-lighted and 
commodious structures, illustrative of the modern Italian 
and English schools, the Renaissance, and the current Ameri- 
can. 

Thus, in succession, each epoch in Architecture will be 
represented. 

Again, concentric and exterior to the perimeter of the 



circle representing the domain of thought, comes the more 
ample space devoted to the several Industries, as Agriculture, 
Mining, Manufactures, and Commerce. This space is to be 
covered mainly with one continuous roof and approached 
from cardinal points and entered through triumphal arches, 
appropriate each to the special industry (see chart). 

Central as to the banded space belonging to the World of 
Industry will be a continuous circular arched passage, lighted 
from the top, and upon which the different exhibits shall 
debouche and front. 

The grand structure for the Industries, encompassing the 
space appropriated to the World of Thought, is to be a 
building with vertical sides, a parabolic-shaped roof, well 
lighted at sides and top, thoroughly heated and venti- 
lated, with alcove spaces debouching on the main passage, 
where gatherings can assemble to obtain information as to 
contiguous or other portions of the Exposition. 

Elevations, cross-sections, and models of all the necessary 
constructions are to follow. 

Encircling the space for the Industries is placed a banded 
enclosure in which all functions of Government may be dis- 
played, the Legislative and Judicial, each separated from the 
other, as also from the present known administrative di- 
visions, such as State, Treasury, War, Navy, Post Office, In- 
terior, Justice, Commerce, Industry, Public Works, Public 
Worship and Instruction, and Fine Arts. 

Special exhibits for the Governments are provided for as 
shown, and disposed in various directions (noted cartograph- 
ically at the exterior corners) may be appropriate spaces for 
objects too bulky for the main body of the industrial exhibit. 
Convenient intercommunication has been provided along 
radial and circumferential lines. The scale of distances is 
arbitrary, dependent upon the scope of each undertaking, 
and need not be proportionate to that of the chart herewith. 

The order of sequence selected in the evolution of subjects 
from a given center is as follows (see chart) : 

1st, Mythology; 2d, Law, including fine arts; 3d, Science; 
4th, Invention; 5th, Industry; 6th, Government. 



6 

The combined features of the World of Thought are 
taken from the cardinal developments up to the present 
epoch and follow, to a great extent at least, the evolution. of 
the human mind and are believed to be anthropologically 
correct. 

The World of Industry comprises all that mental and 
manual work has produced in this branch of the World's 
Economy. 

The Governments which, as well as Thought and Industry, 
have followed a species of evolution (from the one-man 
power, presumed to be based on divinity of origin, to the 
every-man power of an ultimate government, controlled by 
law, the wisest and best that the human mind can educe), 
have purposely been placed on the exterior, where, under 
the watch and ward of the legions of the Worlds of Thought 
and Industry, it shall undergo the changes necessary to 
transmute it into the most perfect form, in effect as in theory, 
to result finally in the "greatest good for the greatest num- 
ber." 

Such in brief is a comprehensive and methodical general 
plan and system for a temporary or permanent World's ex- 
hibit, the details of which admit of being modified indefi- 
nitely in the practical location, construction, and arrange- 
ment according to departments. 

A permanent exhibit should be illustrative of the World's 
endeavor in each of the fundamental departments of thought, 
industry, and government, commencing with the earliest 
and most remote periods of which there is authentic evi- 
dence, and complete in detail for the several epochs re- 
spectively, kept up to date, so that at someone spot upon the 
globe there shall be arranged within a single amphitheater 
an epitome of objects, illustrative of the knowledge and prog- 
ress of the world entire. 

I shall, as occasion offers, project somewhat in detail the 
scope both for temporary and permanent exhibits according 
to the main and minor divisions of the plan as above out- 
lined. 



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PLAN 0FAUN1VERSAL WORLD S EXHIBIT 
GeoM.Wheeler 



Copyright, rSgo. by George M Wheeler 



All righls reserved. 



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